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THE
ORIGINAL SOURCES OF THE QUR'AN. |
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descended in the language of the Arabs and in accordance
with their style of eloquence, and all of them understood
it and knew its various meanings in its several parts
and in their relation to one another. And it continued
to descend, section by section and in groups of verses,
in order to explain the doctrine of the Unity of God
and religious obligations, according as circumstances
required. Some of these verses consist of articles of
faith, and some of them of commandments for the regulation
of conduct." In another passage the same writer
says, "All this 1 is a proof to thee
that, amid the Divine Books, it was verily the Qur'an
with which our Prophet (may God's blessings and His
peace be upon him!) was inspired, in the form of something
recited just as it is in its words and in its sections;
whereas the Law and the Gospel on the other hand, and
all the other Heavenly Books, were revealed to the Prophets
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the form of ideas when they were in a state of ecstasy,
and they explained them, after their return to man's
ordinary condition, in their own customary language:
and therefore there is nothing miraculous in them."
That is to say, the 'Ulama of Islam, while acknowledging
that other prophets came before Muhammad and brought
Divine messages to man, yet hold that the inspiration
of the Qur'an differs not only in degree but in kind
from that to which other sacred books, as for instance
the Law and the Gospel, are due. The writers of these
books received certain ideas from God in some
way but the language which they afterwards used to express
these conceptions was their own, and cannot therefore
claim any origin higher than the human. Muhammad, on
the contrary, heard Gabriel reading aloud or reciting
in a voice distinctly audible to him every single word
of the Qur'an, according as it was inscribed on the
"Preserved Tablet" in heaven. Arabic is held
to be the language of heaven and of the angels, and
hence in the Qur'an we have the very words, as well
as the Word, of God Himself. Words, metaphors, reflections,
narratives, style, all are wholly and entirely of Divine
origin.
There can be no doubt that this view is in complete
accordance with the statements of the Qur'an itself.
The Divine original is styled "the Mother of the
Book" (Surah XIII., Ar Ra'd, 39). Again and again
in varied forms are such assertions |
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